


Ladybugs

by SBambs



Series: Domesticity: It's the little things that count [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood: The Fan Series (Web Series 2018)
Genre: Batfamily (DCU), Domestic Batfamily (DCU), Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, POV Jason Todd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:15:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23068339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SBambs/pseuds/SBambs
Summary: He should be reading right now. He should because that's what he said he would be doing. Jason swears he doesn't mean to stare while she waters the plants, but he's helpless to her. She turns, catching his eyes with a questioning look. He couldn't tell her if he tried. There she goes, smiling at him in that tired way of hers that just says 'You are enough.'
Relationships: Jason Todd/Original Female Character(s), Jason Todd/Reader, Jason Todd/You
Series: Domesticity: It's the little things that count [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1657861
Comments: 4
Kudos: 161





	Ladybugs

He should be reading right now. He should because that's what he said he would be doing. Jason swore he didn't mean to stare while she watered the plants, but he was helpless to her. She turned, catching his eyes with a questioning look. He couldn't tell her if he tried; there was just something about her that made him want to watch, to drink in her every movement, graceful or not. Adoration bubbled up from his stomach all the way to his throat.

The curious look, still present in the slight furrow of her eyebrows, softened into something else. There she went, smiling at him in that tired way of hers that just says 'You are enough.'

Jason’s heart stumbled and nearly fell -- how could it not? -- as he fumbled with the pages of his book. Fuck, he’d been caught staring.

As much as she loved the vigilante lifestyle, Jason knew she liked having someplace other than a safe house to come back too. He knew because of the way she lovingly watered the plants at their apartment, and because of the way she refuses to take out any of the ladybugs currently swarming the windows. 

From under his dark eyelashes, he watched her bounce to the kitchen. She was still smiling, a little wider this time, but sweetly all the same. Some pop song that he didn't know the name of hummed from her throat, just loud enough to be heard over the fingertips of rain tapping outside. His eyes landed the bone-white bandage wrapped tightly over her bicep. Jason’s hands curled around the book’s cover.

It’s just a minor cut, he said to himself. He glanced back down at the pages opened in his lap, but couldn’t focus enough to actually read the text. It was an attempt to shake the nauseous feeling pooled in his stomach, but it didn’t work.

And it was minor -- barely needing a stitch, though Jason insisted on putting in three just in case. She’ll be okay, he comforted.

It wasn’t like she was a stranger to getting hurt.

That aspect of their life was just a workplace hazard. She had little white stripes from slashes and bullets and surgeries all across her body, just like he did. She was strong; she could endure it. Hell, two nights ago when she had gotten that cut on her arm, she had been the one to calm him down. Smiling like nothing was wrong, she had called him a worry-wart and wrapped it up tightly. She’d had worse.

Something in his stomach hardened at the thought, turning to cement or lead or whatever, pressing him further into the couch. Jason would rather die than let any of that worse happen to her ever again.

He focused on the present because she returned to the little plant stand by the window with a small dish. From the way she shielded it, Jason couldn’t make out what it held. 

“What do you have there, sweetheart?” he asked. At this point, there was no use even pretending like he was reading. So, he closed it, noting the page -- 57 -- before turning his full attention to her.

She jumped, like she hadn’t been expecting him to catch her. It was funny, how she wouldn’t even flinch when some goon with a machine gun popped out from and around the corner, but how he could sneak up on her. “Ah, nothing really. Just some honey.”

“For?” Jason raised an eyebrow, somehow already knowing where she was going.

A pause. “Our guests.”

He had to laugh at that. She never once called them ladybugs, or, as he preferred, vermin, instead referring to them only as their ‘guests.’ It reminded him a little of Al, except he would have sucked up the beetles with a vacuum in a heartbeat.

“Love, you’re encouraging them to stay,” he said after a little chuckle. “At this point, we’ll have to start charging rent.”

“So what if I am? They’re not hurting anyone,” she countered. The corners of her mouth quirked up the way they always did when she and Jason bantered. That brought his eyes to her lips, and God, he loved everything about her.

He matched her amused smile. “They’re hurting me; I can’t concentrate with them crawling all over the place.”

“Poor baby,” she cooed.

“Yes, and this ‘poor baby’ needs these bugs out of our apartment, sweetheart.”

“Not a chance in hell, Jay.”

She met his eyes, daring him to oppose her. That was another thing about her: she loved verbal sparring as much as regular sparring. He liked her because of that, because it became a battle of wit and words. Something about ‘mental stimulation’ fluttered through his head.

Jason grinned, accepting the challenge. He stood up carefully, setting the ignored book beside him. He’d need all the leverage he could get. “They’ll be fine outside, don’t you think?”

“In the Gotham cold?” she asked, faking a gasp. The look she shot his way was nothing short of incredulous. “They’ll freeze!”

“Sweetheart, you know that it doesn’t snow here often.”

“Ice rain is just as bad, if not worse, for them.”

“The rain isn’t that bad here,” Jason said with pursed lips.

The victorious grin she shot his way informed him that he had fucked up somehow. “That’s not what you said last week when you insisted I take your jacket in that downpour, sweetheart.”

She bit her lip to prevent from smiling too widely, but her bunched cheeks betrayed her. An unsaid ‘Checkmate’ hung in the air. Jason didn’t even care about losing. He gulped, wanting desperately to pin her up against the wall and smother her with kisses like she deserved; she looked too beautiful, too wonderful. Instead, Jason stepped closer, brushing his lips against her brow only.

“Fine,” he murmured, pulling her in close. If only he could hold her like this always, protected and tight, just to ensure her safety. “It’s not like I can say no to you anyway.”

“Love you too, Jason.” Her laugh was muffled in his chest. His heart felt it, reverberating and dictating its beat; he wondered if she could feel it, the way she controlled him with every little action of hers.

Christ, what did she do to him?

The words felt thick coming out of his mouth. “We’re still- we’re still kicking every single one out in spring.”

“Mmhmm.” When she pulled away, Jason privately mourned the absence of her warmth. At least she was still in his arms, and at least he could see that lovely smile of hers. “They’re good luck, you know?”

“Yeah.”

“You and I could use a little more luck.”

Jason cracked a grin, hoping she didn’t notice the way she made his heart stop. “I’d say I’m pretty lucky.”

“How so?” It was her turn to laugh. He brought her back in, his hands wrapped tightly around her shoulders once more. He wanted to feel her laugh, feel it shudder and bubble against him, feel the warm tingles the ran from his ears to his toes whenever she giggled.

“I’ve got you, sweetheart.” He meant it with every cell in his body. That was his shot in the dark, that was the crack in his defenses. 'Please don’t break my heart,' he almost murmured out loud.

Jason was rewarded when another round of her precious laughter trembled against him. “You’re such a dork.”

“But?” he murmured against her head hopefully.

“But,” she looked up at him with those wide, sparkling eyes that made his knees weak, “You’re my dork. And I love you for your dorkiness.”

Jason had never smiled so wide. Even as he pecked her lips, he couldn’t stop his lips from stretching widely. “Just my dorkiness, love?”

She rolled her eyes. “No. There’s one other reason why I love you.”

“Just one?” He couldn’t hide his disappointment.

“Everything else. I love you for everything else that you are and everything else that you do.” She said it like it was so easy, so simple, and so true. Like a wildfire, his cheeks heated up, and he smushed her face against his chest again just so she wouldn’t see the brilliant red and tease him about it later.

“I-” he swallowed- “I love you too.”

God, he was in deep.


End file.
